Created 30-Apr-25
Modified 30-Apr-25
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from spaceflightnow.com:
Against the setting Sun, United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket thundered off the pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force State to begin the flight of the first production satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellite internet constellation.
Five solid rocket boosters helped propel the rocket and the 27 satellites on board from Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) at 7:01 p.m. EDT (2301 UTC).
The threat of anvil clouds caused ULA to adjust the liftoff time by one minute, but otherwise, weather was quite pristine for the north-easterly trajectory. ULA used its most powerful Atlas 5 configuration, 551, which features five solid rocket boosters from Northrop Grumman.
Including this mission, Amazon has eight remaining Atlas 5 rockets that it purchased to launch its Kuiper satellites. In a media roundtable on earlier this month at the 40th Space Symposium, ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno said the company might launch another Kuiper Atlas mission in the late spring or early summer timeframe before shifting to their first national security mission on a Vulcan rocket.
Full story here:
Against the setting Sun, United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket thundered off the pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force State to begin the flight of the first production satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellite internet constellation.
Five solid rocket boosters helped propel the rocket and the 27 satellites on board from Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) at 7:01 p.m. EDT (2301 UTC).
The threat of anvil clouds caused ULA to adjust the liftoff time by one minute, but otherwise, weather was quite pristine for the north-easterly trajectory. ULA used its most powerful Atlas 5 configuration, 551, which features five solid rocket boosters from Northrop Grumman.
Including this mission, Amazon has eight remaining Atlas 5 rockets that it purchased to launch its Kuiper satellites. In a media roundtable on earlier this month at the 40th Space Symposium, ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno said the company might launch another Kuiper Atlas mission in the late spring or early summer timeframe before shifting to their first national security mission on a Vulcan rocket.
Full story here:
© Dennis Huff
